Applicability of diagnostic criteria for irritable bowel syndrome

The recent issue of Digestion reported that the Rome II diagnostic criteria are remarkably insensitive and if rigidly applied in the clinical situation would lead to much diagnostic uncertainty.

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Symptom-based criteria have been introduced to aid the diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome.

There is little information about their utility in routine clinical practice, although they have been widely adopted and have proved useful for research purposes by ensuring homogeneity of study populations.

Dr Whorewell and colleagues from England assessed the applicability of the Manning, Rome I and Rome II criteria in the clinical setting.

The researchers wanted to ascertain how often hospital specialists and general practitioners use these diagnostic criteria.